“I want you to be fearless dream warriors”: Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles delivers the commencement address at her alma mater, Agnes Scott College

ABC/Eric McCandlessThis summer, Jennifer Nettles will be spending her weekends performing with bandmate Kristian Bush on Sugarland‘s Still the Same reunion tour.

But this past Saturday, the singer, songwriter and actress followed in the footsteps of Oprah Winfrey and The Color Purple author Alice Walker, as she delivered the 129th commencement address at Agnes Scott College.

Jennifer is a 1997 alumnae of the women’s liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia. As you might expect, her speech was both nostalgic — remembering her time at the institution — and inspirational.

“I want you to be fearless dream warriors,” she told the graduates. “I want you to be the boss ladies of your own lives. I want you to live authentically in your truth. I want you to be so in touch with your truth that nothing can pull you off of your path. I want you to live in the marrow, in the the richness, to walk the edge of the knife called life,” she said.

She went on to encourage the women not give up when things get difficult.

“I want you to know that life, yes, is beautiful,” Jennifer continued. “And that it can be hard. And when it is, I want you to take a deep breath and hold your hand to your precious hearts and know, that as my friend Glennon Doyle Melton says, ‘We can do hard things. We were born for hard things.'”